The Berkekely-Maher controversy

[Cartoonist]

The subject has been broached in the Latest Breaking News forum. I stuck my neck in it again. let's see what happens.

[arcane1]

1. That's funny considering his original rant included someone who wasn't allowed to speak at Yale

Because the student atheist group didn't think the scheduled speaker was ex-Muslim enough

[AlbertCat]

2. Should we draw straws?

Y'know.... to see who's gonna post the student's names over there.

[Cartoonist]

3. That was my mistake

I should have kept it generic.

Some good replies over there.
#15. So Islam is a race?
#16. A half marathon between Mecca and Medinah

Other replies are predictable. To insult Islam is to insult every Arab on the planet, and other such tripe. Will Humanity ever be free from religion? Nope.

[AlbertCat]

5. Mistake????

I think it adds very important info to the controversy. Puts it into perspective.

Why should the protesters remain anonymous? I mean if they're gonna stand up and protest, shouldn't they, y'know... stand up?

[Cartoonist]

6. That's what I thought, but . . .

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

This is a blatantly racist post. Please read in context. This member has pulled the arab sounding names of Berkeley students from this petition to make the point that those that are offended are those bad middle eastern people. See his follow up post below for more context.

JURY RESULTS

Juror #1 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: This is a RACIST post .... it sickens me to see this here.

Juror #7 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: Profiling by perceived ethnicity. Those named have a right to express themselves just as does Maher and his supporters.

[Rob H.]

7. For what it's worth, I don't think you made a mistake

I don't know that keeping it generic would've helped, either, given that the people who're compelled trawl this group itching to find something to alert on would probably have alerted on it no matter how generic you could've made it.

[Cartoonist]

8. I can understand one person not getting it

But four DUers agreed. People who want to see racism, will.

[LostOne4Ever]

4. Damn you

You drug me into that accursed thread!

[Act_of_Reparation]

9. I'm not that broken up about Berkley, to be honest

In any given academic year, your average public university hosts dozens of speakers. Most of them are academic, but some of them are controversial. The controversial ones are going to draw criticism, if not protest. It happens all the damned time; I don't see the protests surrounding Maher's visit as anything outside the norm.

I think the signatories to the petition to block Maher have every right to submit their petition to the school, but they should be aware UC Berkley is a public institution and is subject to the same speech regulations as are all public spaces. Unless Maher can be demonstrated to be in violation of the law or university diversity policies, the school probably can't stop him from speaking.

And I say that, at least in part, because I was very critical of a few speakers who visited my school. There was, for example, this craziness:

And the next year, showing they had learned absolutely nothing, the College Republicans invited Anne Coulter to speak. You know, after her lovely, "Kill their leaders, take their oil, and convert the rest to Christianity" spiel.

Freedom of speech isn't absolute, obviously. Universities have a legal obligation to provide a fair, impartial, welcoming environment to students of all walks of life. They can't, for example, host a KKK rally in the interest of free speech when it will likely create an unwelcoming environment for minority students. That line isn't always easy to discern, as in Maher's case, but students do need some recourse available to them in case the line is in danger of being crossed.

So, these kids are welcome to try to stop Maher from speaking. I don't think anything will come of it, however.